Last week, ground was broken on a new $46.3 million Finney Crockett High School that will be complete in time for the 2012 school year. The building is situated at 17200 Southampton St. on the site of the former Finney High School, which is being demolished. Current sophomores at Crockett Technical and Finney will be the first graduating class of the new facility in 2013.
The new Finney Crockett facility will be 221,000 square feet and will accommodate up to 1,200 students. It will be LEED Gold-certified with four wings anchored by a cafeteria commons, eight science laboratories and a high-tech media center. The performing arts wing will include an 800-seat auditorium, a small black box theater with a scene shop and dressing rooms, a 2,400-square-foot band room, and a 1,900-square-foot choir room. The indoor athletic wing will have a community health center, gymnasium with 1,300 bleacher seats, an eight-lane pool and diving well with balcony seating for 230. Outside facilities include a football and track and field complex with stadium seating for 1,100, four tennis courts, varsity baseball and softball fields and event parking.
Deborah Hurst, current principal of Crockett Technical, is clearly excited about the potential for the coalition of two schools. "We are uniquely positioned to establish a new school community," she says. "Together, we can fashion a school that is greater than the sum of its individual histories and forge a partnership on the Eastside to create a center for excellence."
Tooles-Clark, a 55 percent Detroit-headquartered business, is the prime contractor.
Finney Crockett is one of three new high schools that will be built from the ground up using $550.5 million in bond funds enabled by the passage of Proposal S in November 2009. "We are delivering our promises to taxpayers to offer state-of-the-art leaning facilities that are cost-efficient and delivered in a timely manner," says DPS spokesperson Jennifer Mrozowski. "We are moving quickly, this has all happened before the one-year anniversary of the passage of Proposal S." To comply with federal guidelines, all projects must be completed by September 2012.
Source: Deborah Hurst, Crockett Technical High School and Jennifer Mrozowski, DPS
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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